Darker Than Advertised
by Scarker
Summary: Most of the world of Pokémon is shown to be a bright and happy world where the ones that don't get along can fit into one or two evil organizations, but people don't change just because the world has pokémon in it.
1. Zero Chapter The Truths

**{Zero Chapter – The Truths}**

_There are a series of universal truths when it comes to stories. The first is the most obvious: It must all start somewhere._

For this tale, it all started with a picnic. A father has taken his daughter and son to enjoy a warm spring day in the countryside near their house. The sounds of birds and the first of the season's rousing insects, both normal animals and pokémon alike, made their way over the family as they settled down to eat. The little girl, barely turned seven, bounded around happily as the boy helped his father set up.

It was a peaceful scene, a happy family enjoying a pleasant afternoon. If you glanced quickly at them, it would almost be heartwarming. However, fortune smiled upon them that they had the area to themselves, because it wouldn't take long to see where the lines of cheer start to break.

_Conflict, the second universal truth. Without conflict, there is no story worth telling. The day to day existence of a well off, well mannered, properly respected, and perfectly contented family makes for dry material. Without conflict, there can be no interest in the continuance of the story, no desire to see the situation back to a form of equilibrium. The broken family holds far more attention._

The three were not waiting for anyone. The mother could not join them today, or any day, as she had passed nearly three years ago. This would begin to explain the pain etched behind the smile of the father as he watched his daughter play. Then you would see how much he cringed at the sound of clinking cutlery, the way he winced if he turned too fully into the sun. One could almost admire his stubborn stamina, coming out to be with his children with such a painful hangover as he had.

But the son would tell so much more of the story. Not quite a full year older than his sister, his actions held as much responsibility as the middle-aged man that had brought them here. When it came time to eat, he was the one that brought the happy, care-free sister to the blanket, and it was he that served the meal that he had made that morning. He still refused to loose the smile that came so easily to his sibling, so difficult to his father, but his eyes betrayed his attitude to show the strength that no doubt held his broken family together that day.

_Cliché? Perhaps. Not a universal element, but not a useless tool. However, the next truth is change. Watching a broken family may be of more interest than watching one better glued, however the interest lies more in the balancing act than the state of being. Are they brought together after awkward years, or torn apart in a final furious act? Does such a change persist, or is it merely fluctuation of the routine? That is what you silently ask yourselves now. The answer, however, is never direct._

A rustling of branches heralds an unusual approach. While not far from foothills, seeing the white and blue form of an Absol was never a common sight, and certainly a first for the children. Sitting with perfect views, they saw it long before the father's blurry vision could focus behind him, below the afternoon light he had turned away from.

Indeed, the father had seen one of the disaster pokémon before, nearly three years ago. The very day that his love was lost. He couldn't reach in time to stop his energetic boy from leaping up and rushing towards the edge of the clearing, but his other arm catches his daughter and hauls her up as he stumbles fearfully to his feet.

"Tatsuya, get away from that thing, it's dangerous!" Curiously, it's the father, with his little girl in protective arms, that runs from the clearing first, not sparing a look over his shoulder to the fate of his son.

The boy stops in his tracks, only a few meters from the pokémon. The red eyes of its fox-like face study him curiously, but it remains relaxed, its pose stating as loud as words that it doesn't want to hurt the boy.

Tatsuya understands this almost instinctively. He is the one that their cat had gotten along with best, and from what he could see, this pokémon was nothing more than a larger version of their runaway pet.

A hand reaches out tentatively, causing the Absol to step back. It didn't particularly want to have a human friend, but wasn't so against one to simply leave. Tense moments pass as the two slowly closed the gap, but all tension vanishes as they make contact. The itchy spots on an Absol are apparently not so different from those of a cat, and Tatsuya quickly buries his fingers in the pokémon's mane, getting all of the hard to reach places around the shoulders and neck.

"Heh, Kiara's gonna love you. She likes fluffy things almost as much as she likes pink." The pokémon had no reply, save for a quiet rumbling sound that was assumed to be an equivalent to a purr.

"Come on, let's clean up and go home. Dad was wrong, you're not dangerous are you? Hey, do you got a name?"

The pokémon seems to consider the question for a moment, or maybe it simply wondered why the attention had stopped, but it eventually make an exclamation that worked to both possibilities. "Sol!"

"Sol, huh?" The boy resumes his petting, getting a happy purr that he assumes to be consent. "Alright, Sol! Come on, we gotta clean up and get home or they'll get worried." As he goes to the blanket and holds out a scrap of lunch, Sol took a moment to consider things before deciding that the food would be worth keeping the stray pup company. After all, he could always leave once the child was home.

* * *

_One truth has been forgotten in this story. True, the tale is young, and perhaps such truths and literary elements could be spread throughout, but here, the now family of four has no such luck. Conflict we've seen, and even resolution, but there is fallout to all conflict, for in some way there is always the last of the universal truths: pain. _

There was no reason for the father to panic as he did, but he couldn't have know the kindness of the pokémon he'd immediately labeled as a threat. He had his daughter in her room, with quiet half assurances that Tatsuya was most likely alright.

As he paces in the kitchen, the lights of the world dimming behind storm clouds outside, his hands slip unconsciously to his case of beer, as they had every time he found more than a moment to himself. Just one drink, he promises himself. It's just to calm his nerves before going to see what was taking his son so long.

He had probably over reacted, really. He'd never heard of Absol attacks. Tatsuya probably just ran out of breath on the run back. He tells himself this as the booze does its job of calming him down

One drink and he'd go and check.

Unfortunately, over three years, he'd developed a habit of turning 'just one drink when he had a moment' into three or four. Today, he failed to notice that he'd finished his first drink until he's hit his sixth, and once he's realized the time that passed, his inebriation steals his earlier certainty. "My god, something's happened to him..."

He can't know that Tatsuya and his new friend Sol are walking slowly with the weight of the heavy basket, that they would be home in a few minutes. It didn't even occur to the man that his son had stopped for their lunch.

As the first rain drop hits the window, his drunken spirits fall to the floor. "It rained for her too. Oh no, it's happening again. My son..." His mind makes connections, leaps of logic that are beyond the scope of a rational mind.

He didn't recall that, while his beloved had died after an Absol sighting, it had been his drunken rage that ended her life. He didn't recall that they had gone on the picnic today to take in the last clear day before the yearly lowland rainy season brings its first storm crashing over them tonight. His mind was bending under intoxication as empty bottles line up in his grief, then crash away in his rage.

"It was the Absol's fault, always the Absol's fault!" He didn't hear the footsteps behind him, and only barely catches the scared voice, trying to make itself heard.

"Daddy, where's Tatsuya? Will he be home soon?"

The man stops, his focus and his rage now turning to his daughter. The empty case had stolen his coherency, and all he knows is that there is a little thing behind him, vaguely familiar. He'd taken the shape instead of Tatsuya, and all that white... To blurry, confused eyes he could almost see her as... "The Absol... It's all your fault! You tricked me into taking you didn't you? Rather than my own son! And now he's gone because of you!"

The confusion on her face is only matched by her terror. She tries to say something, tell her father that he was wrong, tell him he's making a mistake. With him thundering towards her, reeking of beer and sweat, growling and roaring as though a best, all she did was scream.

* * *

The sounds worried Tatsuya as he came towards his home. Crashes, bangs and yells, he'd familiarized himself with those sounds. He had only ever sheltered his sister from the truth of his father's fury, and he'd been left to hear every sound. He knew it was trouble that he heard them now, while he wasn't there to keep his sister out of the way.

Sol too senses the disaster within the house, and he runs with the basket alongside the boy, dropping it on the porch as they storm into the wreckage of his home. It doesn't take long to tell that the damage was now happening upstairs, and the pokémon let the boy lead the way only until it became apparent where the sounds were coming from.

The screams had stopped long before he was close enough to hear them, he had no warning of the sight that waited for him as he walks into his room, where his father rages. When he finally finds his voice, it barely rises above the din.

"Dad... What have you done!?"

His eyes are glued to the sight of his sister: cut, bruised, and nearly broken. He doesn't know much about medicine, but he understands that with her injuries she won't last long without help.

The beast that had taken his father now faces confusion. The son he was raging over stands before him, as does the Absol that he thinks of as the root of his problems. His mind battles to find the meaning of it, but rage wins out. He decides that it's some magic of his enemy, taking his son for the force that would pull from him everything he has left. The beast's rush happens in an instant. Tatsuya only had time to stumble to his back on the floor before his father was bearing down on him, doubled fists dropping like a sledgehammer.

The curious thing is that as the boy looks up after a moment, curious as to how he hadn't felt the blow, the fists were being held above him, a massive line of darkness crackling beneath them, as though a tear had formed in the light. Only then do they notice the growl.

Some form of reason returns to the man as he faces one of the most sobering sights of his life. Sol was crouching further and further down, eyes glowing red in some unearthly way that made them look darker, more menacing. The horn on the side of his head was cracking with more of the same energy that had stopped the strike dead.

It should have brought him to his senses. He should have fallen away in horror at the sight of a pokémon of pure darkness focusing so much menace towards him. However, the beast's anger saw threat before he understood. He roars and turns his fists, hoping to smash the face of all of his troubles.

His fists meet the rushing horn, then his elbows meet his own stomach as the force turns back on him. Then the hallway explodes in darkness, as though even light was afraid of Sol's retributive fury.

After the light returns, Tatsuya looks at the lump of his father, notes the steady, if labored breathing, and the slow flow of blood from his fists, broken into a single mass from the blast. His mind then reels, and he looks through the legs of the Absol standing protectively above him.

"Kiara! Kiara, please tell me you're alright!" He scrambles to his feet and throws broken scraps off of his sister's frame, noting with relief that while she didn't respond, the hair in front of her nose still moved with her breath, at least what little of her hair that wasn't matted with blood. He decides after a quick check of her injuries that it's safer to move her than leave her anywhere near his father. "Sol! Help me get her to the truck!"

He wasn't allowed to use his father's truck. He couldn't legally sit behind the wheel while it was on the road. He also couldn't travel through town with such a powerful pokémon unbound. But the vehicle's suspension was smooth even at speed, and Kiara needed a hospital more than a wait for an ambulance. He didn't care what he couldn't do.

The world moved beneath him as he and Sol got his sister to help. Tatsuya would tolerate nothing less.


	2. First Chapter Fall In

_[AN] I just feel that I need to point out something before you read, a disclaimer if you will. Yes, I'm using cliché a lot, and yes my main character is the type that doesn't lose. The fun part? Even though this is a pokémon fic it's -gasp!- not about fighting. Sure, there will be a scene or two every now and then, but this chapter probably has the most attention that I'll give to fights for a while. If I wanted to focus on battles and a growth in skill (like most stories I've seen) then I wouldn't have glazed over the three years when he was actually doing his training with Sol._

_This isn't about monsters beating each other to a bloody pulp, rendered in absolute graphic detail to show the true horror behind pokémon battles. This is about individuals. How they grow. How they fall. How, even in a world where there are beings of great power and wonderful skill, people will still be people._

_Not that I'm the kind of person that's against senseless acts of violence, perpetrated by no more than eye contact, I just feel that this story has a bit more promise to it than to let itself devolve into a glorified slug-fest._

_With that in mind, I hope you can still enjoy my little fic. If not, than there are most certainly a dozen others more suited to your taste. Enjoy your read, one way or another._

* * *

**{First Chapter – Fall In}**

Tatsuya's eyes opened slowly. He wasn't sure why he kept having that dream, but it stopped scaring him awake almost a year ago. Now it just pissed him off.

"Three years and I'm still stuck on that night. What the hell's wrong with me..." He sounds mature for a barely eleven-year-old kid, doesn't he? A year of custody battles, pokémon rights hearings, meetings with demeaning lawyers and self-centered judges had taken their toll on what little innocence he'd had left after that night. All of that was before they were bounced around between foster homes, lost in the system and stuck homeless, only to be found again to get shuffled around another three or four times. Right now he had all of the cynicism of an emo teen, with ten times the justification.

Looking at his alarm tells him that he would be waking up in ten minutes anyway, so he shuts it off and sits on the edge of his bed, looking at the corner and it's pile of blankets. This newest family assured him that it's only a temporary situation until they could get something more suitable, but Sol is still sleeping quite comfortably on it.

Throughout everything, the pokémon had remained good natured. Even during the hearings about whether it was going to be killed 'for the good of humanity' he had stayed relatively upbeat, maybe trusting in Tatsuya, or maybe just believing that he was more than skilled enough to escape. Tatsuya would believe it either way, he'd managed to convince a dead beat lawyer to actually support him, and most of the times that he and Sol went out for a walk and met up with a trainer, he'd wiped the floor with them.

The boy then looks to the ring on his pokémon's horn, fiddling with the partner to it on his finger, the one that marks him as Sol's owner. It's the way that pokémon could belong to people that weren't registered trainers, like most of the population, so that there could be poképets. That's all that Sol is right now, technically. Tatsuya had tried to become a trainer, but someone under the age of 14 couldn't become one if any of their parents wouldn't allow it, and his father made it clear that he wasn't going to make things easy in that respect. There was no real rush as he didn't plan on leaving soon, not until Kiara had a good family to stay with, he just didn't want such a capable pokémon to be nothing more than a pet.

He sighs and gets himself ready. He dwells over it every morning that he had the dream. It was starting to get to him just how pathetically he was clinging to things that didn't matter. He had more important things to worry about. Today he was starting in yet another new school - what does that make this, his eighth? - he'd have to start figuring out if this family is one that he can trust with his sister, and he had to bring Sol to the town's pokécenter and get him registered.

"Oi, let's go Sol. You've got a long day of doing nothing, and we might as well get your exercise out of the way first." He finds his pokémon standing passively behind him when he opens the door. Sol knows the routine, and pretends to sleep very well. The two would have gone straight outside without bothering anyone, but someone was waiting for him at the door.

"Six am, huh? I thought you'd be sticking around until at least tomorrow morning." The doctor who had taken them in stands in the entry hall, Tatsuya's shoes in his hand. The man is imposingly large, although it's mostly in sheer height. What muscle he used to have is slowly causing his form to fall, but he's not exactly fat yet. "Funny, I thought you'd be taking a bag with you. You seem a little under prepared to run away."

"I'm not running away, I'm just running. Absol travel several miles a day in the wild, and if I didn't let him exercise, he'd start getting stir crazy." He grabs his shoes and shoves them on his feet. "I'll be back in an hour."

It takes a lot of effort for the doctor to stand aside as Tatsuya walks out the door, jogging once he hit the street. The shelter told him that it's the older brother that he has to impress, but he never realized just what they had meant by 'older.' The pair were born just ten months apart in age, they're even in the same class, but the difference between their attitudes remains staggering.

* * *

"Ah! Welcome back." Now it's the woman meeting him at the door, a much slighter frame than her husbands, with a build best described as refreshingly homey. "Breakfast is on the table, and your sister's already eating with Hikari. There's a towel... Well, I guess you aren't that sweaty, huh? You must be in pretty good shape to run for an hour without being tired."

"It helped that I was at the center for a half hour getting Sol registered."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize it would take that long. Was it much of a hassle?"

"Nah, kinda expected it by this point. Just means I'll take another run later." He walked into the kitchen, stepping on the food release for his Pokémon's dish before going to the table.

"Hey Tatsu, Hikari said she'll show us around town after school. Mom says that we can get lunch at the mall, too!" One thing Tatsuya admires was the fact that his sister still holds the same vibrant smile that she always had, the flexibility that allows her to adopt a new family not long after meeting them. He likes to think that was because he was doing such a good job of keeping her safe, but he knows that it was mostly to her credit. She just didn't know how to distrust people.

"Yah, so eat fast. We only got a few minutes before we leave, and ya still gotta get your uniform on!" The wiry girl, who he supposes was his new sister, is also in the same class. She seems as energetic as Kiara, but more forceful, and he isn't sure what to make of that.

"Yeah, yeah. Don't worry, I can eat on the run if I have to." He didn't have to. His plate may have been rather full, but he empties it quickly, much faster than the girls expected. "I assume that's fast enough for you?"

Hikari just gawks for a moment before a grin spreads across her face. She is the type that likes giving orders, and likes even more when her orders are followed beyond expectation. As Tatsuya leaps over Sol to get upstairs, she rubs her hands together. "Oh, this is gonna be fun."

* * *

The school day was predictable. The doctor could afford a higher class of school than they usually went to, but aside from having better facilities, it seemed to run just the same as all of the other, non-private schools he'd been to. He and his sister introduced themselves, he spent recess shrugging off every group that wanted his attention, for fights or for clubs, and then he met his pokémon at the door, to the collective amazement of the students and most of the faculty, especially the security that thought they would have noticed an Absol slipping on campus.

This became the first time since he'd gone to school with a pokémon at his heels that the routine part of leaving changed. It started with a kid from their class.

"Hey, newbie! Is that an owner's ring on your Absol? I thought you said your were eleven." Tatsuya had already marked the person as a snob when they met in class. His hair is slicked back, his clothes are too clean, and there is always a press of people around him. He was someone that the boy doesn't want to speak to at all, but once the group surrounds himself and his sisters, he looses his choice. "See, I already got my trainer license, and daddy bought me two pokémon. Do you think you're special just 'cause yours got you a rare?"

"No one gave me Sol, and it definitely wasn't my dad." Tatsuya fails to look impressed at the pokéballs on the snob's belt, and this only seems to further enrage the boy.

"Oh really? You gonna tell me you snuck up and ringed an Absol? I say you're a liar! Your dad probably just died and left you the pokémon so you could parade around and act important." He didn't even stop as Tatsuya tries to slowly explain why he was wrong. "I wont listen to a liar! We'll settle this with pokémon. That is, if yours isn't too weak to fight me!" This gains a number of jeers from the crowd, all of whom want to watch the class idol in action again.

"Whatever, just everyone stand back." He bends down to his pokémon, whispering something.

"Hah! You asking him to try not to screw up? How pathetic."

"Actually, I told him to go easy on you. I think you're in over your head." This got the crowd reacting, which makes the snob pissed.

"Fine! I was going to just rough up your pokémon, but now I'm gonna crush him! Go, Bulbasaur and Drowzee! Growl and confusion, now!" He tosses both of the balls from his belt, and the two pokémon appear on the field, trying to imitate their owner's haughty intimidating look.

"Seriously? Whatever, this will be enlightening for you. Sol, Dark Pulse. Spare that Drowzee the trouble of trying." A wave of darkness crashes through the distorted air of the psychic attack, leaving a dark line of energy in its wake and blasting into the pokémon that fired it, knocking the Drowzee back to its trainer. "Lesson one, psychic attacks are useless against dark pokémon, and dark attacks do double damage to psychic."

"Hah! I knew you were lying. Dark pulse is from a TM, someone paid for your pokémon to be so strong. But I've got something you weren't expecting: my pokémon's practically evolved, so it knows some high class moves! Take down!" The little dinosaur rushes ahead toward the unmoving Absol. "Hah! Got you paralyzed with fear, do I?"

"Actually, he used that TM the first time my father met him. Probably taught it and released by another trainer. Oh, and lesson two, never assume that your move pool is more impressive, 'specially when you've just confirmed that it isn't. Double Team." Suddenly two Sols sprint off in different directions, confusing the pokémon and causing it to overbalance. "Take down is a move with a relatively low chance to strike, and Bulbasaurs aren't known for their agility. Sol, finish this: Quick Attack." It ends as both images slam together, and then into the opponent. It doesn't even try to stand as it lands at its master's feet. "Now, I assume we're done here?"

"Bu... Wha... You... You cheated! There's no way you could have won that easy, you had to have cheated!" The boy only spares a passing look at his feinted pokémon, not even bothering to return them to their pokéballs.

"Actually, Mister Nomura, I think you'll find that the league rules are in his favor on this one." One of the teachers that Tatsuya didn't recognize walks into the ring of people, holding a book. He seems to be important, as everyone clears room for him, and Tatsuya could feel Hikari tug on his arm, but he doesn't catch what she says. "Section thirteen - concerning double battles - paragraph two: In the event that a challenged person has only one (1) pokémon at their disposal, a double battle may not be initiated. In the event that such a battle does occur, the person with one (1) pokémon shall not be required to forfeit any prize on loss, but in the event that the person with one (1) pokémon does win, their prize shall be doubled."

The book slams shut, and the teacher pushes his glasses back up his face. "Now, while not an official league battle, our school code does include that anyone caught battling outside of class purposes must follow the official rules and penalties, and while the lessons he taught you will most certainly prove valuable, this is not a class. You may either submit the appropriate sum in accordance to the level listed on your license, doubled in accordance with the rules, or there shall be disciplinary action."

Grumbling, the boy pushes a few buttons on his watch, then slides a card from his pocket through it. "Fine. So you got lucky this time. I'll be winning this back, so don't go thinking it's yours." He hands off the card and storms away with his posse in tow, trying to explain off how he had lost so quickly.

"Now that he's gone, I feel I should add that I look forward to seeing you in class tomorrow. It's sure to be an interesting experience. Bring your Absol with you." Without any further explanation, he walks back into the school.

"So who was that? I know you tried to say something, but I didn't catch it." Tatsuya is thoroughly unimpressed by the events, and simply slides the card into his pocket with the one he'd gotten that morning.

Hikari sighs. "That would be Mr. Seichi, our teacher for Pokémon Studies. We have it twice a week. He used to be a gym leader, and he's known for going hard on people that have their own pokémon but no license. Tomorrow won't end well for you. I just hope that Absol of yours is way stronger than he looks."

Kiara clings to one of his arms. "Don't worry, Tatsu's been doing this for a while. He'll have no problem, will he? Now come on! I wanna get a good look at this town. Lead the way, Hikari!"

Tatsuya may not be as confident, after all he has never tried to deny his advanced skill level, but can he really take on a gym leader? For his sisters' sake, he decides to shrug it off, and just leave that worry for tomorrow.

* * *

"Nurse! Another super potion for our _volunteer's_ pokémon." Mr. Seichi gives his Lucario a pat on the head as it returns to the side. "Now class, I hope this lesson about type differences is clearly demonstrating why trainers need more than one pokémon at hand. No matter how skilled, a pokémon can always be outmatched by one with an advantage, and this goes even for the legends."

Sol staggers back to his side much more slowly. That was the third round that he had gone without more to help him than a few super potions, and while they revive the body, they do nothing for the spirit. Tatsuya reaches out to give him reassurance as his eyes lock on the teacher's. "Mr Seichi, if you're finished demonstrating your point, I think Sol needs a rest. I should step down and allow someone else to benefit from your lesson."

"Oh believe me, we're benefitting just fine!" The snob from yesterday is standing in the front row, laughing loudly every time Sol gets hurt.

"You see? You're doing a wonderful job! Now, that potion seems to have taken effect, so Lucario, demonstrate Close Combat, please." The pokémon comes up in a rush, and Sol just barely turns around, but something unexpected catches them both by surprise.

The only thing the Lucario notices in front of it is a shoe, right under its chest spike. "I don't think you heard me, Mr. Seichi. I've taken the content of your lesson completely to heart, and there's no more that you can teach me on today's subject. Did you know, for instance, that one of Lucario's weaknesses is fighting attacks? Did you also know that most fighting attacks can be performed by humans as well? For instance, this form of Counter that I used to stop him. Then there's this variation of Cross Chop." The strike to the shoulder stuns the already surprised pokémon, while a fist that replaces the shoe knocks the Lucario back a meter.

"Obviously less effective than when used by a pokémon, but you've illustrated your point. Lucario, your new challenger is Tatsuya Nakano. You may attack as you see fit, and not hold back." This came to mixed reactions, with half of the group cheering for blood, while the other half, Kiara and Hikari especially, are outraged.

Tatsuya is barely phased. He doesn't even shift as the pokémon launches into a complex series of feints. The pokémon doesn't really want to hurt him, and demonstrates that, but with how open the boy keeps himself, he can't hide it any longer and has to punch tentatively for the child's chest, hoping that the impact wouldn't be too harsh.

He finds himself punching air. The next thing he knows, his feet are out from under him, then something grabs and throws him.

It catches everyone by surprise as the teacher is caught in the face by his airborne pokémon. Everyone had seen the move, the boy isn't that fast, but they still didn't understand how he had dodged a strike from absolute standstill, hooked the pokémon's feet and tossed him across the room. The two are practically the same size, and eleven year olds aren't supposed to be that skilled.

And yet there's Tatsuya, casually running his fingers through his hair. "I've been overpowered once before. If Sol hadn't been there for me, I probably would have died. So, I decided to fill in for his biggest weakness personally until I can get a pokémon to do it for me. Now, if you're done trying to stroke your ego by beating up children, I think it's time for either a new volunteer or an end to the class. I know which one it will be for me." With that, the two walk out of the classroom, followed by most of the students.

* * *

"Now you see, this is the part where I say that your strike against Mr. Seichi was unacceptable." The school's principal sits forward to lean on her desk, staring at Tatsuya while the teacher attempts to look triumphant with an ice pack pressing against his face. "However, given the situation as it was explained to me by your classmates, and might I add that there were two distinctly different and equally hard to believe accounts of the story, I find it initially difficult to place absolute blame on either one of you."

"What do you mean difficult? He hit me with a pokémon! How difficult is that?" The teacher becomes livid as it grows apparent that he wouldn't get the easy punishment he expects.

"Most accounts of the story state that you gave your pokémon an open invitation to slaughter your student. The opposing account stated that an Absol that didn't know a single psychic move was capable of defeating your Lucario and that he simply threw the pokémon out of spite." The principal rifles through her folders to produce Tatsuya's file, scanning it quickly. "Given that he has only received a short period of martial arts training, I also find it hard to believe that he's capable of competing with a well trained Lucario.

"However, given the list of complaints from your previous students, I find it more likely that you would have a student attacked for not 'taking it like a man' as I've heard you put it, and knowing how your pokémon likes students, I find the account that places the blame on you to be more believable. Tatsuya, you may leave. I apologize for the impression this incident may have given you of our school. I hope the rest of your time here shall not be as abysmal as your first two days."

Tatsuya almost decides to wait outside the door to listen in on the shouting match that is quickly coming to a peak, but he looks at a clock and decides to leave instead. His time had been wasted enough by this one teacher. Exiting the building, he walks to the school's gate and stretches. He'd spent most of the day waiting in the principal's office until Mr. Seichi had regained consciousness, and school had been out for a while now.

However, a voice steals his eagerness for a leisurely jog home. "Do you know what a father thinks when his daughter comes home with his adoptive daughter and adoptive son's pokémon, but not his adoptive son?"

"I'm eleven. How the heck would I know that?" He does his best to not be surprised by the doctor's voice coming from the wall beside him, or the hand that pats his shoulder.

"Good answer. Hikari was pretty impressed by that stunt you pulled today, and the way you handled yourself yesterday for that matter, but I think it's time you started acting your age."

"How much more mature do you really think I need to be?"

"That's just the thing, see. You've got a bank account with 5,000 credits of prize money, and you only ever pull from it when Kiara asks for something. You just defeated a former gym leader's strongest pokémon with your own bare hands. You've taken the repeated news that your father is barring you access to a trainers license as though you were being told that tomorrow's figure skating event three counties over had been canceled. Dear gods, Tatsuya, I'm not telling you to grow up, I'm telling you to lighten up!

"Huh?" Tatsuya only blinks. He'd never heard anyone say something like this to him, and he frankly isn't certain how to take it.

"I wasn't as mature as you are when I graduated college. Heck, Fumiko would probably be the first to point out that I don't take most of my life right now as seriously as you take yours. I mean, I know you've had to grow up fast, but don't you think you've missed something in the process?"

The boy only stares at him for a moment, then turns to walk home, talking over his shoulder. "So you don't take life very seriously, huh? I guess that's a point against you. Not sure I can trust you to take care of Kiara with an attitude like that."

"You see, this is exactly what I'm saying. Kids don't talk like that!" Tatsuya's glad that the doctor is behind him as they walk.

He doesn't want his smile to give away the joke.


	3. Second Chapter Reputation

[AN] Sorry about the incredible delay. Far too much work lately trying to get things ready for the next few weekends. And all of the programming that I've been doing with it hasn't exactly put me into the proper mindset to dictate the actions of eleven-year-old's.

But that's not what you care about, you probably want to just read. So to that effect, here is the next chapter. More apologies for the pace of this one, I'm never very sure when it comes to the exposition chapters, but I'm trying to even it out enough that it's bearable.

* * *

**{Second Chapter – Reputation}**

"Nakano! What a coincidence." Tatsuya glances over his shoulder at the sudden call, jogging to a stop to regard Mr. Seichi.

"Come to interrupt my morning run? You could torment me later during class, there's no need for the house call." The teacher's face is still slightly bruised from the incident two days before, but the Lucario jogging beside him looks in top shape, as usual.

"Relax. If I was here for revenge, I wouldn't have announced myself. I was out a little earlier than usual and saw you, figured it was the perfect opportunity."

The boy keeps a skeptical look, but never the less decides that a quick conversation won't hurt too much. "Opportunity for what, exactly?"

"To talk, that's all. I wanted to catch you before class, but I know better than to argue with timing so..." The look on the boy's face convinces him to stop stalling. "Alright look, I'm sorry about what happened the other day, but I need you to know that it wasn't entirely my fault."

"Seriously? You're going to try and convince me that you weren't actually trying to seriously hurt Sol and me? Stop wasting my time." He turns to leave, but the Lucario's paw on his wrist stops him. "Begging for a rematch now?" His cold stare gets the pokémon to let go, but earns an exasperated sigh from the teacher.

"Figures, the only childish trait you know is irrational defensiveness. Just calm down and listen for a minute, alright?" He takes Tatsuya's silence as confirmation. "Good. Now tell me, if your Absol had belonged to your sister, and I had done to it exactly what I did, what would your sister have done when I told Lucario to use Close Combat?"

He has to consider this for a moment, but eventually answers, "She would have grabbed Sol in a useless attempt to protect him, screaming at you to stop."

"Correct. The other acceptable answers would be: Look on in horror as her pokémon comes close to being pummeled to death or, if she was particularly brave, stand in the way prepared to take the damage personally. Looking on with impotent rage would also be acceptable, but I've found that on the fourth strike, students either start breaking or take action. Now, want to know the truly interesting part of all of this?" A raised eyebrow is the most he gets in way of an answer. "It's a secret that most classes learn through a demonstration like that one. My Lucario isn't strong enough to learn Close Combat."

This earns him his first reaction of the day. Tatsuya's face drops all hints of the scowl it had earlier and converts into a look of utter confusion. "So if I hadn't stepped in, what would have happened?"

"Had you stayed back, he would have tripped over his own feet, like most pokémon trying hard to do something that's too advanced for them. Had you gotten in the way, like you did, he'd stop in his tracks. I feel this is the point where I mention that it wasn't your foot that stopped him. He's got a soft spot for kids; he's more likely to hug a kid trying to defend their pokémon than hurt them."

"So then... Why did you order him to attack me?"

Another sigh. "Well, there's a reason that I'm not a gym leader anymore: Anger issues. The few people that earned badges from me got cracked or bent ones, either damaged in my hand or when I threw it against the wall next to them. I've been good about it, but you seriously messed up my lesson plan by going Bruce Lee on my pokémon. Either way, as I said, Lucario didn't want to hurt you. If he actually hit you it would have only been a tap, and if one of those spikes caught you, he'd probably recoil and apologize before you knew you'd been scratched."

"So then what about the principal? She said there had been a lot of complaints before, and she placed the blame on you too!" He was trying to prove that he'd been right, but he could see that he might just be right over his head.

"We had a long chat about my lesson plans and 'volunteer system.' Most of the complaints were from stuck up, wanna-be trainers that couldn't stand it when 'daddy's pokémon' were beaten. It's more reputation than anything, I've just never felt the need to defend myself. She placed blame on me half because I let my anger go too far, and half because I'm being a little too pushy with my lesson plans and I'm giving the school a bad reputation, which is bad for enrollment."

"Politics." The boy slumps into the bench next to the path, his look now completely blank. "The only reason I was let off was because of politics?"

"Welcome to the rich life kid." The teacher flops onto the bench next to him. "Just imagine how it would have looked: 'Teacher hazes orphan boy and his pokémon while his sister looks on in horror; School supports attack.' If they didn't almost fire me, the school would have been sued by at least five very wealthy and influential families on your behalf."

They sit in silence for a moment while Tatsuya mulls over this new information. Their pokémon watch them from the other side of the path, seeming to have come to an understanding that the other day was nothing personal. Finally, the teacher stands up and walks over to the pokémon, rubbing them on the head.

"I can't pretend to know what happened to you that messed you up as bad as you are, but just try to remember something: not everyone's out to ruin your life. People may not all be good, but they aren't all bad either." He starts to leave, but turns back, an angry scowl amplified by his bruise. "And get a trainer's license! I hate seeing potential wasted as much as your Absol's is."

Tatsuya watches Mr. Seichi run off, his Lucario trailing behind a step or two. Obviously there were things that he didn't know yet, and that thought didn't sit well with him. He also didn't like the thought that keeping his sister safe would turn to a mater of politics. Now it's his turn to sigh. "Come on, Sol. We've got a lot of work ahead of us."

* * *

"So, did you hear? He totally flipped on Seichi."

"Oh yeah? Guy's had it coming, he's always been annoying."

"Yeah but still, he hit him in the face with a pokémon."

"Hah! Serves him right."

"I kinda feel bad for him..."

"Definitely scary..."

The whispers follow Tatsuya again today as he walks around school. He tries to shrug them off, but it's impossible to pretend that he doesn't hear them.

Thankfully, his sisters don't seem to be haunted by association, and he convinced them to keep their distance until everything blows over. Still, his paranoia over his sister makes him testy while he can't see her, and the constant muttering isn't helping his disposition. By lunch, his sour look only worsens the volume of rumors. Hikari's reaction to it is similar to the rest of the class: a fearful readiness to be anywhere but near him. Kiara's continuing exuberance, even while sitting right next to him, is the only thing keeping her from running away.

"Hey Tatsu, aren't you hungry? You're not even touching anything. Does that mean you don't want any?" She quickly stabs part of his lunch and shoves it into her mouth, chewing happily until she looks over at him, still simmering quietly. "Hey, it's no fun stealing your lunch if your don't at least try to stop me!"

"C'mon Kiara, don't bug him so much. He's had a rough day. Still, you should at least eat _something_ Tatsuya. It's no good for you to go around hungry, especially considering that next class is with _him_."

Sighing his consent with her logic, he starts to eat, but he doesn't do so very energetically. "I would be fine if it was just one or two people, but how is everyone suddenly an 'expert' on what happened? I thought only the people in this class knew."

"Words fly here and there." A boy's head pokes in over his shoulder, then moves away to appear over Hikari's shoulder before Tatsuya can even turn to look at him. "A careful question, the right words passed. An overheard conversation and a few guesses. That's all that rumor net needs and the whole school can catch the news at the drop of a hat." He tries his vanishing trick to appear behind Kiara, but Tatsuya grabs him by the collar and yanks him over first.

"Stop doing that." At the boy's furious nodding, he's released to stand easily next to the desks they'd pushed together. "Now, thanks for the info on the rumor mill's workings, but who are you?"

The boy regards him for a moment, an intrigued expression crossing his face. "Yes, yes, just as they say. Impossibly sophisticated for a commoner, yet incredibly unrefined. Pretty neat, Tatsuya Nokano, your name's running around pretty quick. Pretty cool for someone that's only been here for a week."

"Mouser, he didn't ask for his name, he asked for yours. You need to work on your people skills." Hikari is still eating her lunch, bored of the boy's antics.

"Mouser? So that's what the princess is calling me this week? I guess it works well enough, but she's right. I've completely ignored your question, because the very fact that you asked means that you need my skills." He stands there, polishing his knuckles while trying to hold a dramatic pause.

Unfortunately he doesn't know when to stop holding it, as everyone's attention shifts away from him. "Hikari, you know him? Mind explaining to the rest of us?" Kiara tries to keep up with the exchange between the three of them.

"Ah, now little girl, you should know better not to bother her highness with things like that. She knows me just like everyone else, because I make sure everyone knows me. You see, I find information, and I've made a nice little place for myself making sure that the right words reach the right people."

"Oh, so you're a snitch." Tatsuya goes back to eating. "Nice to know who to knock out before I do something that'll make people talk."

"Ah you poor, simple commoner. Snitching is the art of catching things and becoming a witness; no that's far below me. I'm practically the entire rumor mill of this school. I don't just become the witness, I spread the witness report, gather people's opinion on everything that's going on, tell people what they need to hear, when they need to hear it, all for a moderate fee of course. Heh, then again I guess to you it would be most of what you own, hmm? I guess you could always rely on the princess's pockets, but from what I know her network is almost as good as mine." He looks at Hikari for a moment and smiles before reiterating, "Almost."

"So what do you want, Mouser? If I can get anything you know from someone I know better, why bother with you?" Tatsuya pushes away his empty lunch box, now turning all of the frustrations of his day onto the informant with a stare that threw frozen daggers.

"Relax! I come to you as part of my second duty: The acquirer. You see, if there's someone that needs something, I'm the one that knows how to get it for them, and with someone as skilled as you floating around, I can get ahead by being in your good graces. I do a few things for you, you do things for me, money that you don't have never passes hand, but you get whatever you want in exchange for being willing to help out a few people. That's not such a bad deal, right?"

The siblings merely exchange glances silently, wondering just how much to trust him. "Alright, lunch is almost over, and you probably want some time, so I'll tell you what. As an offer of good faith, by tomorrow morning all of the rumors about you will stop cold. No more stares in your back, no more hushed conversations when people think you can't hear them, all of it gone. In return, all I ask is that you think over the offer. Deal?" He leaves with a grin as Tatsuya nods, rushing out of the room to set his information machine to work.

Kiara just looks at the retreating back for a moment. "So... What just happened?"

Hikari sighs. "The devil's taken an interest in your brother, and your brother just decided to stick his toe into the fire to see if it's hot."

"I know what I'm getting into. I've just agreed to play along with the one who secretly runs the politics of the school. Sure, it's a little like playing with fire, but you assume I don't know where to step, 'princess'." He says the nickname casually, subtly hinting that he just learned something about his new sister that gave him an advantage.

Her eyebrow twitches, a sign that she caught the subtlety. "I doubt that, but for your sake I hope you're right. Just come to me before you go to him, okay?"

"Be careful Tatsu, that guy gave me the creeps." Kiara's sudden worried expression breaks through her normal cheer, and causes Tatsuya to stop and consider her for a moment.

He lets another moment go by before suddenly grabbing a sweet from her lunch, popping it into his mouth before she can react. "You should just be worried about people getting back at you for stealing their lunches."

"What? Hey, no fair! Give it back!" She cringes as he sticks his tongue out, offering the mostly chewed sweet. "Ooh, you're so mean! I was worried about you and all you can do is take my dessert."

"Shows what you get for worrying about me, huh?" He doesn't show a hint that he had been quietly enraged just a moment before. Something about the encounter with Mouser has him relaxed, and now he's falling back into his normal mood.

Hikari watches the exchange, half in her own little world. Her thoughts drift around until she finally decides that those two might have things under control. After all, they made it this far, what threats did the school really have that they hadn't seen before?

* * *

Sol meets them at the entrance as usual today, but this time he's not alone. The student crouching next to the pokémon doesn't pay much attention as Tatsuya and his sisters as they walk up to him, instead keeping her attention on finding the spots that the Absol would most enjoy.

"The places you're looking for are three fingers to the left of your right hand, and two fingers down for your right."

"Oh, thanks!" Tatsuya waits patiently as the girl shifts and gives Sol some well appreciated attention. As she stands up, the pokémon looks at her curiously, wondering why she stopped. "You know your pokémon pretty well, huh? Just what I'd expected from someone like you. The buzz about this guy's strength makes sense now. I've never met an Absol that had enough muscle that his preferred spots were shifted so much."

"Funny, I was under the impression that they were rare pokémon. How is it that you've seen enough of them to actually know?" Tatsuya seems to hold back whatever comment that his frustration wanted to make him say only because Sol likes the girl. The pokémon standing contentedly by her side is enough of a vote of confidence for him.

"Oh that's right! I didn't tell you who I am yet. Silly me. I'm Yumi Narin. My dad made the pokémon center and the nurses let me help out with some of the pokémon that come through, but the Absol are my favorite. I make sure to see all of the ones that visit at least once, so I got disappointed that I missed yours when you had him registered so early, but when I heard all of that noise about you two I just had to see him! It's so cool that a kid in my grade has an Absol! It's usually only older trainers that get them, cause most kids don't see past that disaster thing." Her hyper energy trails off. "Wait, if you're a trainer, does that mean you'll be leaving a lot?"

Tatsuya sighs. He'd only met one person that actively liked Absol, and that maniac was obsessed with 'their edgy negative stigma.' Seriously, some teenagers... He honestly never expected to meet someone that was an active fan of them. "I'm not a trainer yet. Even when I do get my license, I probably wont be leaving here for a while anyway. Does that means you'll be hanging around me a lot?"

"Can I?" She squeals and grabs Sol into a tight hug, pressing the side of her face against his mane.

Hikari just laughs. "With any fame comes fangirls. Absol are surprisingly high on the list of cutest pokémon, once the bad news about you stops going around, you're gonna get a lot of girls flocking toward him. Yumi just got here first 'cause she's the biggest fan in my team."

"Your team?" He remembers the conversation from earlier and looks over Yumi, clearly not impressed by his first view of the second best information network in the school.

"Heh, you laugh now, but consider this. She knows any time an Absol is brought to town, and she knows who their owners are. She can do the same with any pokémon that she wants because of her Dad's Center, and you know how much information is stored about any registered pokémon, right?"

He gives her a second appraising look before shrugging. "Whatever. Let's go Sol, you can bring your new friend if you want." He quickly covers an ear to block out the squealing as he makes his way to the gate.

* * *

"Hey! Let me come back again, alright?" Yumi waves from her door, watching Tatsuya walk away with Sol. "And thanks for walking me home!"

The boy is only worrying about how close his house is to the Absol addict as he waves over his shoulder. Sol, waiting at the road, seems even less concerned about the girl as he stands at full attention, staring intently at something. As Tatsuya reaches him, he doesn't need his pokémon's night vision to identify the shadow across the street.

"Tatsuya, I-"

"Want a drink? The bar's about four blocks the other way. I don't think that's much of a thing to be asking your son anyway."

"That's not fair, Tatsuya." His father steps into the light from the street lamp. The last years had obviously been no better to him then it had been to his children. "I just wanted to ask if you were willing to give me a second chance yet."

His glare locks on the drained visage of his father. "You say that as though you think you deserve one."

"People make mistakes, Tatsuya. It's a mark of maturity to forgive them."

"Mistakes? You call it a mistake? Oh sure, you were drunk, that means that it's alright for you to nearly kill both of your children. Or is this the point where you try to convince me again that it's my fault I worried you into a bottle?"

"I did nothing to harm you!" The calm rationality is beginning to peel from the man's image as his rage starts to build again.

"Not for lack of trying!" The boy is barely any calmer. "You thought you were leaving me behind with a dangerous pokémon, then you tried to attack me when I finally got back. Either way, Sol is the only reason that the two of us are safe, and don't even think I've forgotten what happened to Kiara."

"Don't you say that! Don't you dare act like your her guardian. You're just a kid, what could you know about what happened that night?"

"I know enough to make sure that you never get near my sister ever again. You killed your children, stop trying to take us!"

His father is about to shout, but a quiet voice from behind him freezes his blood. "Tatsu... Um... Dr. Mieru wanted you to pick something up on your way back. You forgot your phone so... I..."

Tatsuya looks between his sister, nervously shifting a fair distance away, and his father, suddenly caught in shock, slowly turning and trying to get any sound out of his mouth for his daughter. To him dealing with Tatsuya is like dealing with another man, even if he refuses to acknowledge it, but Kiara is harder for him to handle. He has yet to find himself at ease around her, as much as he tries he just can't push away all of the guilt, and her shyness around him never helps.

The awkward silence continues for another moment before the boy finally speaks. "You know what he wanted me to pick up." Kiara jumps and starts to say something, but with a nervous glance to her father she ends up just nodding. "And he gave you the money for it." Another nod. "Then let's not keep him waiting." He walks past his father, almost casually. As he passes the man, he whispers, just quiet enough so his sister can't hear, but loud enough for his father, "Just leave us alone already."

Sol reluctantly slinks by the man, only taking his eyes off of him once they pass well beyond him. He doesn't notice, but like Kiara he's calmed from the incident by how casually Tatsuya brushes the entire thing away.

Their father watches them until they turn the corner. He knows he can't just leave things the way they are, and he refuses to admit that his children are lost to him. Fires replace the shock in his eyes as he recalls who he is. He never loses, it's not in his nature to do so, and he won't admit defeat even to his son.


	4. Third Chapter  Sensibility

_[AN] Again, many apologies for the delays. Thanks for still reading (don't lie to me, you're on this page and you know what I'm saying, thus you're reading, ha!) Also, welcome to the storyline! Most of the delay was spent with me trying to figure out how to ease into this (among other RL things...) and yesterday I finally found a way to skip the easing and dive into the deep end. You'll have to endure a battle or two before it finally takes hold, but-_

_Well, I'm sure you don't read this to hear me babble. Reviews are appreciated (I don't respond directly to reviews, but I do read them and take each one to heart, but if there's something you really do want to discuss, feel free to send me a message, just as long as you don't force me to say 'it's coming, I'm sorry, please be patient' or 'I'll answer that in the story, promise' too much.) Enjoy the read!_

* * *

**{Third Chapter – Sensibility}**

"Seriously? Night Slash, this isn't worth the time." Sol walks through the psywave and slaps the Kadabra with black glowing claws. It wasn't even a challenge. "For the last time, psychic does nothing to dark." Tatsuya shrugged through the wave, easy since he wasn't the intended target, and walked on to the school with his sisters and pokémon in tow.

"But, b-but what about Miracle Eye!" The rich kid just stands in shock, not trying to help his stunned and injured pokémon. "That's supposed to put dark pokémon on even ground, isn't it?"

"If you use it, it does eliminate their immunity, but they still have a type advantage." He doesn't even slow. "Of course, it does nothing if you don't use it." The four pretend they don't notice that the boy's method of 'helping' his pokémon is kicking it and calling it worthless.

"Ever wonder what life would be like without pokémon?" Hikari tries to get their minds off the pair they left around the corner, not liking to think about her classmate's bad habits any more than the others.

"I think it would be a lot more peaceful. I mean, people wouldn't have pokémon to fight with, and armies wouldn't be possible with no pokémon to do any of the fighting." Kiara always starts with the most optimistic view of the world. "Besides, people would have to get along because all of those heavy lifting pokémon wouldn't be around for construction, and it'd take a lot of people to make up for one Machamp."

Tatsuya just sighs, he doesn't want to pitch in his two cents, but... "Hey, your sister said her part, you can't just sigh over yours. What does the pessimism machine have to say?"

Another sigh. "People wouldn't change. They wouldn't work together to build things any more than they do now, they'd just get machines to do the work of pokémon, after all they wouldn't need to do all that research on pokéballs or owner rings or the box systems. Then there's all of the medical knowledge we wouldn't have without pokémon, most of the near instant cures we have now are based on the effects of berries on pokémon. Wars would still be fought, and they'd still be as big, but with people and machines instead. Sure some things would get better, but other things would get worse. I mean, can you imagine not having Sol around? Or him being with us, but as a wolf or something?"

They all look at Sol, who pretends that there is something very interesting to look at on the other side of the street. Hikari breaks first. "Alright, you win. You can spoil any conversation, no matter how good it's turning out. Happy?"

"And this is why you let me sigh in peace."

"Really though, it doesn't matter. Can you imagine how ridiculous it would be to not have pokémon? I mean, that would be a billion years of evolution that would have to not have happened. It's just not possible." Kiara's diffusion skills are as good as ever, and their conversation turns back to more plausible random things for the rest of the walk.

* * *

"Heheh, another school champion bites the dust. Seriously man, you have no idea how lucky you got by moving here, half the school has psychic pokémon." Mouser keeps tapping away in his phone as they talk. Tatsuya couldn't tell if he's texting or taking notes, but he is certain that it has to do with the information network. "On another note, I don't think your sisters like me." He motions to the pair across the room with his phone, barley slowing his fingers' motion through the movement.

"For Hikari, that's probably your fault." He waits as the boy snickers. "Kiara's just uncomfortable around you. It happens. So, was that one of those favors you wanted? I don't think he walks to school, and I doubt he just happened to want to challenge me."

"See? I told you that helping me out would be easy! You don't even have to go anywhere you wouldn't already be, I just send the favor right your way. Now aren't I a great partner?" His fingers pause as he considers something on his phone. "Hey, you want to take down a flying trainer? The guy sends his birds out to 'paint' peoples cars. They can't track it to him cause they're so quick, but I got proof it's him."

"You know the deal, no bug or fighting and you have to convince them they they want to fight me, not the other way around." He pauses a moment to consider it. "Also, if I end up covered in bird shit, I'll borrow his biggest bird to return the favor. If it's one of my sisters, I let Sol get inventive."

"Kch... This one's gonna be a bit of maneuvering... Probably wont have to deal with it until next week." He goes back to his furious typing. "By the way, past few weeks you've built a bit of a balance with me. Remember, you can spend those favors whenever you want. Wouldn't want you forgetting and running off to be a trainer, I couldn't handle that sort of debt."

"You'll need to learn to deal with it. This 'debt' is what's going to keep your network clear of my sisters. Did you forget the last few weeks of discussions?"

"Hey, the more I get you to waste, the less time I have to tip toe around your precious bunch. Oh, and feel free to add more people to the protection bill, that'll burn it faster."

"I never said protect, that's Hikari's job, and even you know that she's good at it. Besides, inactivity is a lot cheaper than protection, and easier for you if I'm not mistaken."

"Hey, you know how it is, the less I got tying my hands, the more free I am to play." He pauses to shrug just long enough for the 'text sent' chime to sound. "I just want to loosen the coils a bit."

"If you want less rope on your hands, you could always use me less."

This he seems to consider for a moment, before brushing it off. "Really, what's a cease order on two people against having an Absol master in my pocket. Besides, my kindness is getting me cooperation from the princess's group. At this rate we'll be one big group. Not sure wether to thank you or pull all of your favor for that one."

"Whatever, on to something more important. What did you find in the legal world." He notices Mouser's flinch. It's the only favor he ever called in: to have the Mouse ask his dad if the Nakano custody battles really had anywhere else to go. Given the snitch's poor relations with his father, it had been an expensive request.

"Well, with how much of a dead beat your dad is, it's a wonder he has the power to deny you trainership. My dad doesn't think he stands a chance, not without a few years of anger management and alcohol rehab. But from what he found out with his favors, it's not legal issues that you need to worry about. Pops is watching out on the less legit side of things just in case, but there is one thing neither of us can help you with: Rocket's starting to move in some weird ways." By this point he's all but forgotten that his phone is in his hand. "I'm not saying that your dad has anything to do with it, but you've been taking out some half decent trainers on your morning runs, so Sol's drawing a fair bit of attention. If your dad wanted someone to make you guys easy targets..." He leaves it at that as he sees that Tatsuya is considering it heavily.

The tense silence is broken suddenly by the sound of Mouser's phone alerting him to some news in the school. "Well anyway, you should be alright. Team rocket has a bunch of thugs, but numbers are all they have. Who knows, you might have brushed off a few of them already. I got some stuff to do before the assembly, so catch ya later."

Tatsuya finally stops brooding over the new information and looks at the door that his informant just went through. "What was he talking about? There's no assembly today."

* * *

"You're all probably curious as to why I've called this assembly, and I can tell you all that it is in fact exciting news." The principal was practically beaming at the podium. "One of the students at our high school, and the captain of the joint Pokémon Club with our school and the middle school, Nina Rosiny, has earned a place on the Japanese National Olympic team this year in London." Cheers erupt throughout the auditorium as a nervous looking girl stands up from her seat behind the principal and bows. Once they die down, the Principal continues. "In celebration of this event, the Sheruya Gym, which Nina is a member of, has decided to open its doors to students of the Yeru Academic Circle for an unofficial tournament. For the rules, I'll turn this over to Mr. Seichi."

The teacher takes his place at the podium and starts speaking in a lazy, disinterested tone. "The tournament will be this Friday, and you have until I leave on Thursday to sign up with me. You do not have to be a trainer to participate, and although we suggest using your own pokémon, students are allowed to request one of the school's pokémon, chosen at random, to compete. There are currently 50 members of the Sheruya gym that are participating in this student competition. On Friday, participants will be allowed to challenge any of them to a one on one match. If a student wins 10 matches, they will be granted the opportunity to challenge gym leader Okamoto, one on one. In the event that they win, they are allowed to make one request of him, as a gym leader, as their prize. To keep you from embarrassing yourselves and the academy, I will be screening your potential requests as you sign up."

The assembly keeps going, but most of the students aren't listening. Either they're too busy discussing what to ask of the gym leader, or they simply don't care. While true that there are a lot of people that battle, most of them aren't trainers, and while they're as headstrong as a bunch of spoiled children can be, gym trainers are notoriously difficult, and gym leaders have reputations to maintain on top of that.

So when Tasuya starts taking a series of stares from the people sitting around him, it's understandable that he flatly states "I'm not entering."

"Oh come on!" Kiara of course is oblivious to challenges when they concern her brother. It's almost flattering to the boy. Almost. " Any request from a gym leader? You can pass that up? You could get another pokémon, or a pokédex, or - Oooh! - a pokégear, or maybe he could give you a trainers license!"

"The first one is impractical, the second and third would be nice, but can be bought easily, and the last is simply impossible." He shoots down all of the suggestions easily. "I'd rather catch my own pokémon, they'd respond to me better, and as far as the trainers license, a gym leader's say won't override a parent's decision. Really, the only favor that most of the people in this school would ever ask for is to have their school lock revoked for a year so they can go back to traveling, and a one on one is a lot easier than trying to earn the gym badge that they normally need to travel for a year."

"Yeah, well I can see a lot of them asking for high tier pokémon, too. Steel is a pretty tough type, and the good ones are hard to find." Hikari decides to fill another gap, her cell suddenly ablaze with reports of the people that have already decided to enter. "Although I'm surprised. A lot of people really want a shot at this."

"All the better for the gym." Mouser slinks in behind the trio, chuckling quietly to himself. "It's a celebration for the gym, so think about it, why would they invite a bunch of kids instead of throwing a normal party? The answer: Messing with kids and laughing about it during the real party is a lot more fun. It's good for everyone concerned to show the stuck up kids how weak they actually are, really. Discourage them early and they may consider a real career path." His smile fades at the less then entertained looks on the siblings' faces. "At least, that's what the adults are thinking. It's bad news for an estate if all of the kids run off to be nameless trainers and neglect their education. If they get famous for it like Nina, fine, but if not their parents would much prefer that they keep their focus on their money."

"It's just a weeding process." Tatsuya adds his grudging agreement. "The few good enough to get a request will use it to improve their skills in one way or another, and the rest will lose their chance, eventually losing interest in training other than as a hobby. I know what I'm doing, so I don't need to be weeded out, and the few things he could do to help me out would only be beneficial if I was already a trainer."

"Just what I'd expect from the Absol Master of Yeru Elementary. So decisive and concise, it almost makes me proud to know I'm your classmate." He chuckles again, unable to keep serious next to Tatsuya's stoicism. He doesn't stick around any longer, instead slinking back through the auditorium to manage the rest of his web.

"There's seriously something wrong with that kid." Hikari keeps staring at where Mouser just was. "But It's good that your pride isn't pulling you into doing something stupid with this competition."

"Why would I listen to pride? All it wants is an inventive way to get me into trouble. I'll pass on that."

* * *

It was late. Late enough that it had been easy to sneak out of the house. Tatsuya couldn't imagine what Mouser had called him out this late for, probably just another trainer to take care of, but he's annoyed that he's losing sleep. The fact that the meeting place is next to the seediest hotel in town isn't helping any.

The first man to walk out the door of that hotel turns to regard him imediately. "Hey, Tatsuya! So good of you to come out at my invitation." The voice isn't the one he was waiting for. Hearing that his father had somehow arranged this meeting only makes him more annoyed.

"Calling a child to a bad area of town so late at night? You keep proving that you make for a horrible parent. I've gotten the point, you can stop showing off." Sol moves in front of Tatsuya, growling. "So what's so important? If it's anything that doesn't involve you leaving the two of us alone, I don't want to hear it."

His father let's out a hardy, echoing laugh that almost seems sincere. "Well then, I'm glad that I caught your interest. I'm going to offer you a little wager, a challenge that I doubt you'll be able to pass up."

"Just skip to the part where you give up and leave us in peace, forever indifferent about our existence."

"You know the tournament that the gym is holding? Enter it, use your favor to ask for a battle with the olympian. If you beat any one of her pokémon, I'll leave, and you'll never hear from me again."

"That's all? All I have to do is beat seven pokémon and I'm free from you forever? Hah! If that's all I had to do, I'd beat a hundred."

"Not seven, just one out of a specific six. I don't care what it takes to get to that one, but if you beat it, I'll leave. Do we have a deal?"

"Wait, if this is a wager, what happens if I don't win?"

"Oh? What happened to mister confidence? You seem very worried all of a sudden, I thought there was no one that little monster couldn't beat." When this fails to get a rise out of the boy or his pokémon, he grunts. "If you lose, you give away your monster, he can't be your pokémon any more."

"Ah, is that it? No problem then, you've got a deal." Hard as he tries, Tatsuya's father can't find the slightest hesitation in his expression.

He doesn't expect to find any, he just hadn't thought it would be that easy.

* * *

Brandon Okamoto is a practical gym leader. He knows that he doesn't need to be on the challenge floor as the tournament starts, and he figures he has some time before the few half decent trainers start showing up to get crushed by him. Knowing this, you can imagine his surprise when one of his disciples bursts into his room soon after the tournament begins, holding a challenge script, properly marked with five unique symbols from his students.

When he finally sees Tatsuya, waiting in the challenger's spot, running his hand through Sol's mane, part of him is less surprised. "So you're the kid Seichi warned me about huh? Jesus kid, how did you beat a trainer every two minutes? He told me you were good, but this much, and against steel, no less... I'll hand it to ya, that's one impressive Absol."

Tatsuya merely shrugs. "I've got a lot riding on this. I want to get it over with as soon as possible so life can go back to normal."

This earns him a strange look that brakes into a grin. "I think I like that attitude. So what, you got a bet going with your pops or something? You beat the olympic choice fair and square and you get something out of it." At Tatsuya's nod, he bursts out laughing. "That's priceless! To think, you actually hold yourself in high enough regard that you think you'd get past me, let alone her! Sorry kid, but this aint ending well for ya. Lucario and Absol just don't mix."

The Lucario that Sol found himself facing even felt stronger than the last one he fought. Remembering how that fight went, it takes a considerable amount of will to make him walk out onto the field, but with a look at the unconcerned trainer behind him, he steels his resolve and sets his stance.

"If you're waiting for me to start shaking, we'll be here for a while. Swords Dance." Sol starts moving around in a mix between pacing and short leaps, the glare in his eyes becoming more and more focused.

"You really do think you can win, huh? Lucario, let's finish this fast, Aura Sphere" The Lucario wastes no time, gathering a blue ball of energy and hurling it across the field

"Detect and evade" A similar energy envelopes Sol and he twists aside at the last moment, the sphere passing harmlessly to the side.

"Let's see you do that again, Close Combat." The Lucario rushes forward.

"Me First." Brandon's grin falls away in shock as Sol shoots into range first, kicking his opponent away. "That would be your high damage attack, half again as strong, all with a damage amplifier, and need I mention the double weakness?" To the Lucario's credit, he manages to push himself up, only to drop again.

"One hit K.O. with a type disadvantage..." A hand slides across his hair and down his face, as the he was trying to slide the shocking event out of his head. "Kid, I gotta tell ya, that's a first in my book. I'm actually alright with giving away a loss like that." He runs the hand back through his hair and starts chuckling slowly. "Seriously can't argue with that loss. Heh, with tactics that good, you've definitely earned a round against Nina."

"What? Tatsu, you said you'd wait for us! I can't believe it, you said you'd let us watch." Kiara and Hikari walk through the door behind Tatsuya.

"Well, to be fair, when we told him he could start without us, we didn't think he'd get through everyone in fifteen minutes." Hikari looks around the field, noting how unscathed Sol is, and how decidedly unwell his opponent looks. "Sheesh, you could have at least let us watch you take down the Lucario. That looks like a once in a lifetime kinda fight that we just missed."

"Sorry. I was waiting, but I was kinda nervous. There were just too many things that could have gone wrong and I just wanted it over with so I wouldn't have to think about it. I mean, if he used anything but those exact moves, or if I didn't get the free chance to use Sword Dance, Sol would have been dropped."

"Hold it!" Suddenly Brandon inserts himself into the conversation. "Your masterful tactics were so poorly worked out that there was only one way it would work, and you still stood there like there was nothing I could do to shut you down?"

"Well, I had a couple of backup plans, but basically, yeah. If you had done anything else but used Close Combat, Sol couldn't have done enough damage to guarantee that protective knock out." He sheepishly rubs the back of his neck as the large man looms over him.

Brandon hold his incredulous look for another moment or two before bursting with laughter. "Incredible! Tactics and guts at the same time. Now there's no way you're not fighting Nina, she needs to learn from those guts of yours." He points over his shoulder to the door that he came in through. "Head on into the back and make yourselves comfortable. Miira can set you up with a replay of the match if you want to show off, and there's a med station you can use to give your pokémon a pick-me-up. Nina should get here soon, and you can have your match as soon as she does."

* * *

Sheruya Gym's spectator area is a balcony about two floors off the gym floor and just off to the side enough to not be in the way, with extra thick bulletproof glass just in case. Gym battles with inexperienced trainers against the living shields of steel pokémon have a tendency to get dangerous. The space is well cared for, with comfortable benches and plenty of room for however many people are following the challenger around. It also has fairly decent carpets, a number of different exits, and a pair of humming vending machines, just to be sure that everyone is well taken care of.

Not that the girls notice any of that at the moment, glued as the are to the window. In truth, neither of them had ever seen a full blown pokémon battle, with two masters using equally skilled and perfectly trained pokémon. It was strange to see the generally docile Nina, a well know introvert, suddenly ablaze, commanding a Gengar into a flurry of attacks and feints that are difficult to follow. Neither of the girls are used to ever seeing any single battle take more than ten minutes, because all of the ones at school are one sided from the start, and any that are shown on TV are cut and edited together with shots of uninteresting commentators and commercials. But this battle had been raging for almost half an hour, even the uninvolved trainers on the gym floor stunned by just how well matched the pair was.

And saying that the match had been raging is no understatement. Most trainers only use three to six of their pokémon's moves, since the exact movements, situational usefulness, and timing are difficult enough to remember that it's a challenge to remember many, especially in a team of six. It's one of the biggest reasons why people use themes rather than take a more balanced team, any one or two types of similar moves are much easier to recall than a varied array that spread across the spectrum. However, the mark of a pokémon master is their ability to recite the names, types, and specialties of all of the moves among their battling party, if not of every one they'd ever caught. With anywhere between one and three dozen moves, and an intimate understanding of the exact timing for each one, the possibilities for combinations is almost endless.

Even more, both trainers had recognized each other's obvious skill within the relatively calm first five minutes, and they've been slowly stepping up their tactics, even building combos with each other's attacks. There are times when the two pokémon are locked tightly together, limbs and claws twirling within inches of each other. Then there are times when both trainers have to stop ordering moves to let the pokémon sort themselves out on their own, breaking only long enough to get reassurance before leaping back into the fray.

It's lasted long enough with enough noise that all of the viewing booths are packed with the visiting students, except for the private one that Kiara and Hikari are in. Everyone on the floor is standing just to the side of their signature steel pokémon, and the living tanks are the only reason they were safe. Several of the spectator's pokémon were dented or knocked out by an errant burst of energy lashing out from the combatants. Even Tatsuya and Nina would have to dodge sudden streaks of danger, but no one's eyes could leave the center of the field, or the edge, or just barely within the corner, wherever the battle drifts for that moment.

It had to end. Most of the people there are still in shock at the continuing ferocity of the Absol, many of them thanking Arceus that their previous fight against the incredible pokémon had been as short as it was, and the cunning of the Gengar with its endless smile is unnerving to say the least. The few truly skilled trainers in the room could tell the truth though: the Absol is running on fumes, and the Gengar's grin is more of a grimace. The end of this titanic clash is close and all it would take was one slip.

Unsurprisingly to the gym trainers, it was Sol, his hind leg giving out under him as he tries to spring forward to bring the battle back into a clinch. The surprise comes when the Gengar is the one disrupted by the fault. Now accustomed to the pokémon's speed, she anticipated where her opponent would be, and overbalanced trying to stretch to correct the strike. It had happened earlier, when Sol had pulled a feint, and the ghost had recovered then, but now she's tired and hurt. Half an hour against straining fury takes its toll. The fall was no better for Sol, but unlike the toppling ghost, he's lined up to attack. One last Dark Pulse, and it's over.

Both pokémon are collapsed on the ground, exhausted and needing to heal. Every breath is held, waiting for one of them to stand, to decide the match. There's no surprise when Sol is the first to his feet, shaking, and obviously favoring the leg that had failed to hold him before, but standing, and for just long enough for the referee to decide. Cheers went up as the trainers, shaking just as badly as their pokémon, rush to the field.

They say a lot to each other about the match, tossing a few berries and medicines between them to get their pokémon fit enough to make it to the nurse in the back room, but it's almost casual, as though they're old friends that hadn't just been pouring their souls into dropping the other's pokémon. It was a new feeling for both of them, really. Such heated matches aren't uncommon within the upper league matches, and the olympic circuit sees several full hour bouts, but for both of them, this is their first prolonged fight, especially since, for Nina, such a stalemate usually means she needs to put in a different pokémon, but the one on one had forced her hand here.

They're so swept up in the aftermath that it isn't until Sol wis back to his feet, stable if not steady, that Tatsuya looks around, finally realizing that his sisters aren't among the flood of people coming down from the balconies. He gets reassurances that the pair will be ushered into the back room as soon as they're spotted before he follows Nina and her Gengar into the back room. They are left to take care of the pokémon while the gym trainers try to shoo people away and have the tournament continue away from the recovering fighters.

* * *

Elsewhere, indecent men are discussing indecent things about the indecent acts just performed against decidedly decent children.

"Your men have her? She hasn't been hurt at all, you're certain?" A bulky man is standing in the stereotypical dimly lit smoky room, leaning over the stereotypical expensive wooden desk of the stereotypical shadowy man, wondering if all of the cliché in the room is killing the mood.

"One skilled near-trainer's sister, captured as agreed, and one rich head-doctor's daughter, our agreed upon collateral." The man puts down the phone receiver. Unfortunately it's only a plain navy blue chorded desk phone, not the more appropriately sinister, thin, black and gold, antique dial phone. "You may take your daughter when she's brought here. Once you are beyond the city, your escort will leave to their own duties. After tonight, Mr. Nakano, neither of us will know the other, nothing illicit will have happened here, and the world can go on spinning us as far apart as possible."

"You've been a great help Mr. Selton. I'm sorry that the doctor's brat is the most that I can offer as payment-" He's cut off by a calmly raised hand, shamefully bare of flashy rings.

"Not at all. I consider this a joint effort, and am as satisfied with my reward as I am sure you are with yours. It has been good to do business with you, but for both our sakes I would ask that you kindly forget my name. After all, it was your hard work that won the day for us, and I believe you are deserving of full credit. I am merely pleased my organization could help you at all." You can practically hear the silkiness of his his voice, as though trying to outdo the well tailored suit.

_'It would me so much easier for me if you truly do inflate your ego to think of yourself as the mastermind_,' the man thought, standing to shake the departing idiot's hand. '_It's not difficult for a twisted ego like yours, and I'd much rather not have you mentioning me until long after the evidence is burnt.'_

These are shady people, after all. The man all dressed in shadows and silk is glad to see the mild villainy of a deranged father walk out of his office. He's quite worried that such short sighted vision would leave a foul taste in his mouth. It only made sense to use a pawn and discard him. He can always find more pawns. That is, after all, how he became the main villain.


End file.
